Just a Glimpse
by suspensegirl
Summary: Pre-series NJBC - In the midst of their 6th grade year, Chuck is very suddenly informed that he is to be moved with his father to a new Bass, Inc. base...overseas. Saying their goodbyes proves harder than expected, esp. to those w/ a perfected facade.


A/N: This just came to me earlier this week – based off of one of my own memories. =)

*I do not own Gossip Girl, but don't we all wish we did? ;)

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"So, that's it then?"

"Yep."

"You're really leaving?"

"Yep."

"Wow."

"Yeah…"

"Chuckie, that's so sad!"

They all turned to look at Serena who appeared to be in a fit of tears, the recently applied mascara dribbling down the side of her face. They were only halfway through their sixth grade year, but Lily VanderWoodsen did not seem to really notice how her daughter had matured and Serena had taken great advantage of that, wanting to be just like the high schoolers a few years older than the rest of them.

The blonde jumped forward to hug the brunette boy but Blair put out an arm to stop her.

"I would be careful, S."

She turned a sad face towards her best friend, so much more confused and sadder than she had been a moment earlier. "Why?" she whined. Blair cleared her throat loudly.

"Because," she whispered very loudly. She turned to the boys and glared, enforcing them both to turn around. Chuck was more hesitant.

"Why?" Serena asked very softly.

"He had…" she hesitated, "s-e-x."

Serena gasped, a hand quickly covering her mouth. Chuck smirked and snickered, knowing very well just what Blair had informed the bubbly blonde about.

"With _who_?" Serena asked, still horrified. Blair swallowed hard. Personally she found no likeable quality in Georgina Sparks. Nate was very indifferent on the topic. Chuck and Serena obviously felt otherwise. Blair bit her bottom lip hard and finally decided to let her in on her little secret.

"Georgie," she confided, gulping.

"No," a whiff of air slid past Serena's lips. Blair nodded slowly.

"You ladies about done?" Chuck asked, the smirk clear in his voice. He was so full of himself, Blair thought with disdain. She rolled her eyes and they turned around. She sent Serena a wary glance to keep in mind what she had said, but it was as if the conversation had never taken place. Serena flung her body at Chuck and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"Serena!" Blair screeched, horrified. Chuck grinned wildly.

"I do so appreciate your gratitude of my…awesome existence," Chuck said cockily, his hand lazily drifting towards the hem of Serena's skirt. Blair's eyes widened horrified, and she smacked at his hand just as Serena was pulling away. The blonde was hardly aware of the act, but Chuck was frowning, and that made Blair roll her eyes. Clear victory was never at hand. Nate was in a world of his own.

"Why are you leaving again?" Blair asked blandly. Chuck raised his eyebrows but she refused to take notice of his amused expression.

"Yeah, man, you didn't really specify," Nate added. Blair smiled, and her stomach fluttered with excitement at Nate's agreement. She was _so_ going to marry him someday, she decided. Chuck shrugged, his hands now stuffed deep in his pocket. Serena looked on at him in concern. She bit her bottom lip softly.

"Apparently, my dad is moving his business headquarters overseas."

Blair's eyebrows furrowed. "Your dad's gone away for a long time before and you never had to leave." Chuck thought he heard a hint of possible frustration in her voice at the idea of him leaving, but he left whatever snickering remark unsaid.

"Yeah, but this would be a more permanent…situation. I guess his dealings lately have all had to do with a trade company based in some of the Asian countries."

Both Blair and Serena gaped.

"_Asia_?" they asked simultaneously. Nate's eyes widened and he turned more directly towards Chuck. They were all in shock, and it was clear now that Chuck was very solemn about the whole thing.

"That's like…a continent!" Serena whined. Nate was in shock, still unable to speak.

"B-But, New York is the greatest place in the world," Blair insisted very strongly, hardly noticing how she stuttered a bit. They all turned towards her in wonderment. "What? That's what my mom says," she spat. They all focused back in on Chuck.

"Will we ever see you again, Chuck?" Serena asked in a very small voice. Blair turned and looked at her in sympathy and wrapped an arm around her waist soothingly. Serena's head immediately fell on Blair's shoulder. She was so very depressed that she wanted to leave, but the fear of never seeing Chuck again kept her in place. Blair could not understand Serena's eager willingness to stay around Chuck when his perverse, cocky attitude had been intensified so very dramatically by his loss of virginity via Georgina Sparks. Still, she admitted to herself that she would miss him as well. Just not out loud.

"When do you leave?" Nate asked hesitantly.

"Next week," Chuck said with a sigh. Serena could not find it in herself to widen her eyes and shriek in her horrified state but a few tears trickled down her cheeks again. Blair's fingers clenched on the side of her best friend. It angered her how long he'd waited to tell them. And if he had not known that long – which was a very probable possibility – then she'd plague her anger on the dart-filled picture of Bart Bass she had whenever Chuck shared a sad story about how his father had ignored him for business or…pleasure. She realized then that she would probably have to get a new picture. His whole bland expression was covered with holes.

"But uh," he cleared his throat, "let's not think about this." Everyone looked up at him, seeming to be teary-eyed. It was clear Chuck was trying his very best to put on a brave face – for all of them. "Tomorrow we can all hang out, and make the best of this last week. I'm sure I can come home for holidays," he assured them. There was a lingering doubt in his mind that he would not even get to return for Christmas, but he couldn't look at the sad, fallen looks of his best friends for a moment longer.

Serena sighed loudly. "Okay," she said. She looked up and saw her limo approaching. "Oh, that's my ride…" she said sadly. "See you tomorrow, Chuckie," she waved, barely having the strength to do so, and walked towards her vehicle.

"Can I come, Serena? My dad said our car service would be really late today and that it'd be better to find a ride, so I wouldn't have to wait so long."

"Oh…sure," she said, still so sad. A flicker of envy shot through Blair at the sight of the blondes walking off together. Nate shared a sad look with Chuck, but the young brown-haired boy was still so very against man-to-man contact that he just smiled a little. Nate got the message and just smiled in return. Blair made a mental note though that she would make the two of them have a proper good-bye before Chuck actually left.

"You wanna come, B?" Serena asked, turning towards the two brunettes once more before she hopped into the car. For half a second, a flicker of hope rose in Blair. _Serena and Nate wouldn't be alone if she went with them…_

"Oh, uh, no," slipped out before she could stop it, "I'm sure my limo will be here any minute," she smiled reassuringly.

"Oh, okay," Serena accepted immediately. Nate gave a little wave to her, and to Chuck and slipped into the vehicle right behind the pretty blonde. Soon the car moved out of park and drove away. Chuck turned to look at her. He was very inquisitive and in awe at first, but then his darker energies moved towards the surface and he stepped closer to her.

"If you wanted some alone time, all you had to do was ask," he murmured in her ear. She scoffed and moved away from him, standing closer to the edge of the sidewalk.

"_Please_, Bass. You may be leaving, but that is not how I plan on saying good-bye." Her eyes raked over his body in one single motion, in disdain. She tried to ignore the way her heart was bleeding.

Chuck pursed his lips. "Pity."

She could not find it in herself to change her expression, so instead she just turned away and looked out onto the road. Her focus was lost though and it was all a blur. She forced herself not to cry. She and Chuck had always shared an extra closeness. It seemed to come with their second natured wit and scheming. But when it came to showing real emotion in regards to each other, and sometimes with others, they both failed.

Some time later, she saw her car approaching from the down street. A great panic shot through her and she felt as if it were actually the next week already, that once she took that step inside her car and went home, that she'd never see him again. A huge lump formed in her throat.

"Ba—" she turned around only to have her heart drop further into the pit of her stomach. He couldn't have left already, could he have? He wouldn't have left before at least saying goodbye, right? Sweat droplets formed on her forehead and she swore she felt the sniffles coming on. Her breath hitched, but at the last second she reminded herself how very unladylike and un_queen_like it was to have a meltdown on the sidewalk in front of the school, regardless if the school day was over or not. She took in a deep breath and made to walk over to her now parked car when she felt a hand wrap around her forearm and pull her towards its attached form.

She gasped. "Chuck!" she shrieked, quite aware that it was him by the smarmy scent and smirk she could feel _thick_ on the back of her neck. He released her and she spun around. Her eyebrows narrowed angrily and she just stared for a moment before smacking at his chest with her "school purse".

"Hey! Hey!" he recoiled, stepping away until she finally stopped. It was odd, she realized, that he did not try to stop her or pull her towards him again. She let herself think for a brief second that it was because he was going to miss her – miss _this_ – and that thought made her heart soar.

"Since when do you let me play rough, Bass?" she asked, the pain that threatened to crush her moments earlier completely vanished. He smirked at the way she placed her hand so confidently on her curved hip.

He took a step forward and leaned dangerously close to her face.

"Since I _like_ it," he breathed on her.

"Ugh," she pushed him away, but this time he pulled her with him. She struggled.

"Baaaaass," she whined. He spun her around though, so she was facing away from him and very suddenly, very fiercely wound his arms tight around her waist.

"I'm going to miss you, Waldorf," he murmured roughly against the curve of her shoulder. She gasped, feeling a single dribbled tear on the back of her uniform. She swallowed hard, afraid to move. She didn't want to break this, but she didn't want it to end up on Gossip Girl either.

"Ch-Chuck," she said finally, very quietly. His grip loosened and she took one step away. It suddenly hurt to be out of his embrace and she turned back around to him. Seeing his broken face made her want to die, and before it rose back into its normal cocky confidence, she walked back towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, sighing sadly.

"I'm going to miss you too, you Basstard."

He smirked, and she could feel his fingers inching up towards the hem of her skirt. She found herself giggling instead of yelling at him though as she slapped his hand away. She looked towards her car and the ever patient driver sitting in the front seat.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Bass," she said, smiling wildly. He nodded, eyeing her figure in the lustful way he'd eyed nearly every girl as of late. She rolled her eyes but could not stop smiling. _He was going to miss her._

"Waldorf." He winked.

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A week and a day later, the three returned to school, feeling so very empty without their fourth counterpart. There were no smarmy comments, no snide jokes, no scheming behind the scenes, not even from Blair at the start. They all wondered when it would ever be the same. They knew it wouldn't.

Then suddenly, and so very out of the blue, Chuck Bass came walking towards them, having just exited his father's limo. Bart Bass exited the vehicle directly after him, heading towards the school's main office.

"Dude!" Nate said, huge smile on his face. He walked faster till they met up with him and couldn't resist the sudden need to hug his best friend. Serena looked like she wanted to scream, shout, and squeal all at the same time, but couldn't seem to do any of them.

"Chuuuuuuuuck!!" her eyes watered as she went after him and hugged him fiercely. It surprised the three of them briefly that Serena had not used her almost constant nickname on him, one that he secretly abhorred but amused her with.

Blair began to walk towards the three of them rejoicing, and was about to say something when Nate jumped in.

"What happened?!" he asked excitedly.

"Yeah, was Asia not all it's cracked up to be?" Blair asked, raising an eyebrow when she finally reached them. Chuck's gaze flitted over to hers.

"It would seem that way, Waldorf. My father decided that New York in fact was just the place to be – the center of the world as he phrased it." He smirked. Blair smiled victoriously. "He's just going to the office now to uh…readmit me to the school."

Serena giggled, lacing her arms through Nate & Chuck's, briefly unaware of her best friend's existence. Chuck shared a side glance with the brunette walking behind him. It made her heart flutter that in the midst of Nate & Serena's focus on him – as it should be – _he_ was focused on _her_. He grabbed a hold of her hand – not waist, not wrist, not hip – and pulled her up next to him. He flashed her a ridiculously large smile and she smirked up at him, her eyes glittering. His hand lingered a little too long on her soft palm, and their fingers were dangerously close to intertwining before they separated completely.

"Good to have you back, Bass."

"Always a pleasure," he whispered into her ear, his lips grazing along the soft skin of her cheek and lightly putting pressure before he pulled away. Her breath hitched, and she dared to let herself believe she had been kissed on the cheek…by Chuck Bass, and that she didn't mind it in the least. She would tell herself _later_ that she abhorred it.

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Just a cute little fic I thought of, based on my life, though obviously not this awesomely. ;p Please review! =D


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